While NH’s economy will remain closed for the time being, and some businesses will be able to partially open later this month, Governor Chris Sununu announced on Tuesday that police officers, firefighters, EMTs & paramedics would receive a $300 weekly stipend due to the coronavirus.
To date, over 143,000 workers – which is over 20% of New Hampshire’s workforce – have lost their jobs due to the shutdown ordered by Sununu. While many commend first responders for remaining on the front line and risking exposure to the virus, some are understandably confused about the new policy’s reasoning. First responders are still legally allowed to work, while many other workers in the supposedly ‘Live Free or Die’ state are legally prohibited from earning a living and are forced by the government to go broke.
The $25 million set aside for first responders is part of the $1.25 billion that New Hampshire was ‘granted’ by the ‘CARES ACT’ passed in Washington, which is funded by taxpayers from all over the US.
While EMS workers are surely exposed to many sick patients in homes, senior facilities, and hospitals, firefighters and cops do not quite face the same danger. Firefighters do very few calls, and rarely ever have to come in close contact with people (EMS personnel have to get very close to their patients due to the nature of their work). Police officers also come in contact with people very rarely – at least as a percent of their day compared with EMS workers.
Throughout the US, police officers are willfully engaging with citizens who violate local orders to stay out of parks or to wear masks. From cops violently pulling peaceful men off of buses in Philadelphia to arresting peaceful mothers at a park with their children in Idaho, there are many such examples. Police officers in Concord, NH recently harassed innocent parents for being at a park with their children, as well. It is growing more clear each day that there may be no law too tyrannical for police to enforce. They will always obey their superiors. As cops often remind us, they believe that they are ‘just doing their jobs’. While it is worth noting that some Sheriffs and the NYC PBA are unhappy with their political leaders’ orders, we know of no instance in which a LEO refused to carry out an order of his/her uniformed superior.
In the case of New Hampshire, the cops’ superior is Chris ‘His Excellency’ Sununu. And he seems to be restricting freedom and enforcing ‘safety’, even to the detriment of the newly unemployed. When hundreds of thousands are out of work due to the Governor’s order, it’s ridiculous that he’s giving a stipend to those who he still allows to work, while leaving the rest to hang. No matter how many people suffer and die from being unable to leave home to work or go to the gym, our Governor does not seem to care.
We would be satisfied and our liberties would be restored if we could simply be allowed to return to work. Perhaps due to political pressures, he continues to use ‘public health’ as the ultimate excuse for controlling the masses, just like Governor Cuomo of New York and Governor Newsom of California. As he recently made abundantly clear in a recent Tweet reminding him that our state motto is ‘Live Free or Die’, Sununu’s new motto is “Public Health First. Always”.
